Delhi Airport file
– Photo: ANI
Expansion
The issue of not allowing farmer leaders to travel with kirpan at Delhi airport has started gaining momentum. There is a lot of resentment about this in the Sikh community of Delhi as well. They said that preventing Sikhs from traveling by air with kirpan is insulting.
Sikh leaders say that it is condemnable that security personnel stopped farmer leaders Jagjit Singh Dallewal, Baldev Singh Sirsa and Sukhdev Singh Bhojraj from boarding the plane when they were going to attend maha-panchayats in Tiruchirappalli and Puducherry in Tamil Nadu on behalf of the United Kisan Morcha (non-political) on the issue of minimum support price guarantee law.
Kirpan is fully permitted in domestic flights and it is one of the five Kkars of the Sikhs. Shiromani Akali Dal Delhi unit president Paramjit Singh Sarna has said that Jagjit Singh Dallewal and other leaders were going to attend a conference related to farmers’ demands in Tamil Nadu. Being stopped by airport security personnel is a display of the Centre’s hatred towards farmers. It is also an attack by the Centre on the religious freedom of Sikhs. He has asked whether Amritdhari Guru Sikhs cannot now roam freely in the country with their religious beliefs?
Sarna said that Sunday’s incident should be seen in the context of the indifference towards farmers’ issues. Farmers are citizens of this country. BJP leaders have also been showing their hatred towards farmers from time to time. On the one hand, the government calls itself pro-Sikh, but leaves no stone unturned to prove that it is anti-Sikh on every issue.
